Tinnitus from Motorcyle Noise while Pumping Gas

[lharpnad]

I was pumping gas at a gas station in Brownsville California on my way back to work. I heard a loud motorcycle approaching the station and looked up. I saw an overweight man on the bike smile at his friend who was filling his truck next to me. He revved his engine twice. Little did I know how those few seconds would affect my life profoundly.

I immediately knew my ears had been damaged, my ears hurt a lot. Instead of working I just rested and tried taking whatever supplements on hand that I thought my help (reishi mushroom, vitamin C). I had no tinnitus that first day it happened, but I awoke the next morning with ringing in both ears.

This happened the morning after I went to a pretty loud concert (not obscenely loud but still loud). I have never had tinnitus longer than a few hours after a concert a handful of times throughout my life. I was working a lot and I had a busy weekend staying up late and was running low on energy (in TCM terms my kidney chi was low, and kidney = ear). A few nights before I accidentally had coffee in a stout and it kept me up all night. The next night I stayed up late a party, all after working a 60 hour week. To summarize I was drained and in TCM my "protective' forces were low.

In the immediate weeks after I tried a few things to help with the tinnitus, acupuncture and hyperbaric oxygen treatment. None of those seemed to affect the tinnitus but they do help with my other health issues.

About a 7 or 8 weeks after the incident my tinnitus seemed to ramp down ~50% or so. Since then it has stayed about the same, varying between mild ringing (predominantly in the left ear) and a softer sound but is overall much more tolerable. The right ear is usually much less but sometimes seems about equal. Interestingly when it's the ringing sound I feel like my ear and head are still physically vibrating.

Since then I have continued to get acupuncture and hyperbaric oxygen treatment as I can afford it. There is published research that hyperbaric oxygen treatment helps with tinnitus, but the participants in the study were using the chamber more frequently than I can afford. The acupuncture sometimes increases the tinnitus volume slightly during the treatment but overall improves my health. After one session my tinnitus subsided significantly but has since returned to my normal baseline varying between ringing and the other noise.

Some interesting things that happen is rarely (once a week or so) I will hear the tinnitus "shift." It's hard to describe but it almost feels like it "moves" and the tones I normally hear goes away for a few seconds and is replaced with a completely different tone, but then comes back. It has happened more than a few times at weird coincidental times relating to important events in my life.

Interestingly yesterday I needed to take a high dose of CBD for another health issue I deal with and I was in an altered state (there was some thc in the cannabis as well). I was listening to the tinnitus with full attention, I felt like I could go deeper into the sound and hear layers I couldn't normally hear. It was interesting and then after I did that for a few minutes I fell asleep for a minute, only to wake up and the tinnitus was reduced significantly. Today it is back to about normal (maybe slightly better overall).

I enjoy listening to Dalesnale's tinnitus zapper and scrubber on YouTube, sometimes it will help ramp it down, and it masks it, interestingly the one with crickets sometimes makes my tinnitus noticeably worse (more than anything else).

Some other notes:

I am a musician and field biologist (listening to bird songs), so I really value my ears and this has been difficult for me. I don't feel like the incident had any substantial hearing loss but as my job required hearing faint bird songs from far away at times, it is concerning, and I wouldn't know what faint songs I am not hearing. I still feel like I can hear about the same but I know the incident didn't help.

Luckily (compared to others I have read about here), I haven't had trouble sleeping and when I get in my day doing stuff I "forget" at time that I have tinnitus. I can practice guitar and piano and not notice it (unless I try). It is very frustrating a times but I am trying. I have not played any live shows as I don't want to hurt my ears while I am still healing. Eventually I will have to figure out if I can play louder electric shows ever again. Probably not without hearing protection.

I read something that said three months of acute tinnitus turns it into chronic, so that is what I originally set my expectations to, but reading Tinnitus Talk and going on four months makes me realize I could be in this for a while. I am going to continue with just trying to be as healthy as I can be and acupuncture and hyperbaric oxygen treatment occasionally.

But some things I want to try more after research includes:

• Psilocybin: I took about a gram and didn't notice any changes but will experiment with higher doses.
• Chi gong: I have seen some videos about chi gong for tinnitus help and tried some of the exercises, I think I should try general chi gong to raise my bodies energy to heal in addition to the tinnitus specific exercises. I have done some medical chi gong years ago which focuses on organ systems. In TCM ears are connected to kidneys. Theoretically doing kidney chi gong exercises. If you don't believe in TCM get some acupuncture, I have had profound mind body experiences (often related to kidney).
  
• Supplements: like Nicotinamide Riboside, Ginkgo biloba, Ashwagandha, Ginseng. I have tried some but I need to be more consistent.
• Continuing to avoid loud noises and I have earplugs now.
• Massaging the areas around the ears.
• I am curious about the nicotine connection have seen anecdotal evidence that nicotine pouches can help (and hurt) and also found research that anti smoking meds like Chantix can help with tinnitus.

Writing this up has been helpful for me and hopefully will make me give a more consistent longterm effort to make some changes and see if they help and report back.

It's very disappointing that the person who revved his engine can do this and face no moral or legal repercussion. Honestly as far a suffering goes, it probably would have been easier if he would have punched me in the stomach. That's something you can go to jail for but not damaging someones hearing for months (hopefully not years).

The silver lining to this is it's making me much more aware of my hearing and I am much more mindful of loud noises now and if I ever get back to normal I will protect that silence with earplugs and behavior modification. It definitely sucks though but I am happy I have times when I forget about it now.

I will post here occasionally with updates.

 

[Mark F.]

You know what, I'm truly sorry you are dealing with tinnitus now, but you're nuts if you think that guy on the motorcycle should be punished or sued! People rev their engines ALL THE TIME, motorcycles, cars, trucks... Modern life is very loud. It sounds like just a bad, random encounter between you and motorcycle guy. I understand you're upset and want to blame somebody, but that guy didn't do anything illegal, or immoral. Just bad luck, my friend.

 

[gameover]

You know what, I'm truly sorry you are dealing with tinnitus now, but you're nuts if you think that guy on the motorcycle should be punished or sued! People rev their engines ALL THE TIME, motorcycles, cars, trucks... Modern life is very loud. It sounds like just a bad, random encounter between you and motorcycle guy. I understand you're upset and want to blame somebody, but that guy didn't do anything illegal, or immoral. Just bad luck, my friend.

Sorry, that's the wrong attitude. The "modern life" is too loud for no good reason. Out of ignorance and stupidity. These behaviors should be changed. This goes far beyond tinnitus or hyperacusis. Noise causes stress in otherwise healthy individuals and also animals. Plus it is cumulative; all the people who are "fine" with the noise "all the time", eventually may not be.

 

[kingsfan]

Many times I've had motorcycles, trucks, and sports cars rev their engines as they pass me while I'm walking. They know it's disturbing and do it on purpose because they have untreated NPD or something.

 

[RunningMan]

Many times I've had motorcycles, trucks, and sports cars rev their engines as they pass me while I'm walking. They know it's disturbing and do it on purpose because they have untreated NPD or something.

I had a friend back in the 90s that used to like to ride his motorcycle by people walking, riding bikes, or otherwise standing alongside the street, often in groups such as at an ice cream place with a street side serving window, and intentionally backfire his motorcycle right as he passed them. It was like a canon. He got a kick out of it. I don't think he thought of it causing potential lifelong damage as much as just startling them. So, he was ignorant, but many people just don't care.

 

[gameover]

Heck, myself I had at one time an upgraded very loud horn in my car. Mostly used it for people not paying attention at lights, etc. Once used at an aggressive bicyclist. Never "just for fun". Still irresponsible and ignorant.

 

[lharpnad]

I didn't expect that on a tinnitus forum someone would say it is perfectly morally acceptable to damage someone's hearing just for a pointless thrill.

After reading over this forum, it seems like construction sites and concerts should/could post warnings. Especially if it's a construction site where someone might just be innocently walking down a public street. At a concert it seems like you should have some expectation but still could be helpful. It seems like a simple thing that our society should be able to do, but add it to the list. There are decibel limits on motorcycles and cars but I know people can mod the engine to make it louder. Excessive noise can be ticketed but I would guess it not often is. It's not like I went to a motorcycle rally or something. As I said before, the amount of suffering and even pain from this event was more than if he would have come and hit me moderately, and that's a criminal offense just as a thought experiment. I was pissed when in happened and wanted to talk to the guy but knew that I was outnumbered and me saying something would have likely provoked an even louder response.

Anyways, my tinnitus seems like it's getting better, it has shifted more from the ringing to the other noise which is kind of like metallic wind. Luckily I can control my environment these days and have been keeping noise and stress low. I feel bad for someone who would have to continue to work in a loud job (which is what I did for a month).

 

[RunningMan]

I didn't expect that on a tinnitus forum someone would say it is perfectly morally acceptable to damage someone's hearing just for a pointless thrill.

I think this is like what I said about my fiend who backfired his motorcycle near bystanders. He wasn't intentionally trying to damage anyone's hearing. I never even thought about that back in those days - just thought he was shocking people with those loud backfires. Sometimes he did it not too far up ahead of me when I was riding back behind him on my own motorcycle.

But anway, trying to keep the volume down from the general public doing their thing seems pretty difficult and a low priority. It's the world we live in. It seems it would be difficult to prove what actually caused the tinnitus.

Those things you mentioned doing probably won't make a difference in your tinnitus volume, not much does that doesn't have risks. But protection will certainly help prevent more noise trauma.

 

[kingsfan]

I think this is like what I said about my fiend who backfired his motorcycle near bystanders. He wasn't intentionally trying to damage anyone's hearing. I never even thought about that back in those days - just thought he was shocking people with those loud backfires. Sometimes he did it not too far up ahead of me when I was riding back behind him on my own motorcycle.

But anway, trying to keep the volume down from the general public doing their thing seems pretty difficult and a low priority. It's the world we live in. It seems it would be difficult to prove what actually caused the tinnitus.

Those things you mentioned doing probably won't make a difference in your tinnitus volume, not much does that doesn't have risks. But protection will certainly help prevent more noise trauma.

I just think startling strangers for kicks is a little antisocial.

Anyways, my tinnitus seems like it's getting better, it has shifted more from the ringing to the other noise which is kind of like metallic wind.

Yes, that seems to be a common sign that your tinnitus is improving.

 

[ZFire]

I recently reconnected with an online gamer buddy of mine. He's from Mumbai (a major Indian city) and when I brought up my ear troubles and the need to be careful, he straight up warned me never to visit his city lol or any other major Indian city for that matter because of the insane noise levels there. He went on to tell me the moment you step out of the airport in Mumbai, you're met with the deafening sound of a million car horns all at once. Not occasional honks, just everyone holding down the horn the entire time. Wild... I asked why constant honking was so prevalent there? He responded "that's just where our thumb goes." :/

Moral of the story, be glad you don't live in these noisy places. Occasional loud outdoor noise events are going to happen, there's just no way to avoid it entirely, but you'll mostly be fine especially with hearing protection. It pales in comparison to the experience of living in a major Indian city. -.-